Why Are (Some) Males’ Egos So Fragile?

Where does the male sense of entitlement come from?

We live in a culture that has promoted male supremacy from the start—note that under the Constitution before Amendments 15 and 19, only men with property could vote. Some supporters of Judge Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court, too, seem to take for granted the notion that women should submit to males’ (deserved) power. As Dr. Christine Blasey Ford gave testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in which she reaffirmed her allegation that Kavanaugh sexual assaulted her, himpathy was expected, not empathy for a woman’s trauma.

Where does this sense of entitlement come from?

Entitlement was not part of our ancestral social environment, nomadic foraging communities—95 percent of our history—where the small, leaderless communities were “fiercely egalitarian” (Boehm, 1999). It was not part of Native American group history, which were matrilineal at the minimum, and took women’s wisdom seriously (Mann, 2006).

Male entitlement was not part of early Christianity, where there were numerous groups of Christians with different beliefs, some with women leaders (Rossi, 1991). Women continued to be healers and community pillars in Europe—until the witch burnings. The community pillars, with their connection to and protection of the “commons” and their healing plants, got in the way of the “Great Transformation” (Federici, 2004). The Great Transformation (Karl Polanyi, 2001) of the social order in 17th Century Europe represented a “revolution of the rich against the poor.” Public lands (forests, marshes—sources of foods, building materials, firewood, and hunting) were privatized. Lands without property titles were called “wastelands.” What used to be available for free in the commons became subject to purchase and sale. Commoners could no longer grow and harvest their own food, draw water or hunt wild game.

In commons, production and governance were part of the same process and all commoners could participate in both (Bollier, 2014). No longer. The takeover of the commons causes enormous upheaval, including the dissolution of communities, loss of social solidarity and identity, deep economic inequality, hunger, famine, poverty, migrations from countryside to cities in search of food and work for food, political turmoil, decimation of community and ecological abuses.

Along with the takeover of the commons, debt was criminalized. Indebtedness and exchange are part of our species heritage, too. Mutualistic, reciprocal exchange is Nature’s economy (Worster, 1994). Shifting indebtedness between individuals and groups is normal. Credit between community members had originally reinforced communal ties. It was a common form of cooperation.

“The criminalization of debt, then, was the criminalization of the very basis of human society. It cannot be overemphasized that in a small community, everyone normally was both lender and borrower. The imprecise, informal, community-building indebtedness of "human economies" is only replaced by mathematically precise, firmly enforced debts through the introduction of violence, usually state-sponsored violence in some form of military or police.” (Graeber, 2013).

The last 500 years have continued the hijacking of the commons by governments and the wealthy, extending to the whole world, beginning with the Vatican’s 1493 Doctrine of Discovery which claimed that any lands not governed by Christians could be “discovered” and claimed by the Christians who arrived on shore. It has continued more recently with government-business partnerships that again take away the livelihoods of the common people through the forces of globalized capitalism (Bollier, 2014; Korten, 2015; Perkins, 2016).

What does this all have to do with male entitlement?

When communities are disrupted, so are families. When families are disrupted, so is child development. When child development is disrupted, it is particularly impactful on boys. While both girls and boys need the evolved nest to grow properly, boys need it more and for longer (Schore, 2017). Girls have more built-in resilience and develop much faster in early life.

The evolved nest practices include soothing perinatal experience, extensive affection (nearly constant in babyhood), responsiveness to needs to keep the child calm, multiple adult responsive caregivers, breastfeeding on request for several years, self-directed social free play and a positive supportive climate for mother and child. And no punishment.

The USA in the 21st century has made it difficult to provide the nest because there is no paid family leave after the birth of a child and family attention tends to be on making money which is known to make people self-centered (Vohs, 2015). Today, even wealthy families don't understand what young children need and are not providing the evolved nest that babies need for developing their full human capacities.

How does a child survive who feels highly insecure, who has an empty self and deep despair? He might use his enhanced survival systems to oppose and dominate or submit and emotionally withdraw. He has difficulty behaving in ways that are “fiercely egalitarian” because those capacities are grown within the evolved nest.

Instead, he latches onto scripts, learning the rules that get him ahead. He uses his survival instincts—territoriality, rivalry, routines, and group loyalty—to move through the social world (MacLean, 1990).

The deep insecurity inside is externalized—other people are the problem—because the splitting of self occurs in early life as a matter for survival. Insight to personal feelings are underdeveloped or too dangerous. The world becomes black and white in certain respects. If he feels bad, it’s someone else’s fault. Because the child himself was not treated with empathy himself in early life, little empathy is developed (Narvaez, 2014).

The script for an entitled male is to make sure their head is higher than that of women or unqualified men. If there is threat to that script, they must fight like the devil to make the world right again. They feel righteously angry for the threats to their place in the world. We see the raging of entitled males across the USA as they are asked to share privileges with everyone else (Cramer, 2016), including being held accountable for their actions.

It’s easy to understand why our cousins, the nomadic foragers, worry about the dangers of a big ego—the man can become dangerous in doing anything to keep his power. These communities prevent it by, for example, teasing a successful hunter (“maybe we should find a rabbit—it would be so much bigger!”) until his pride of personal greatness melted into laughter (Lee, 1979). Laughing at silliness shifts us out of self-aggrandizement and self-protectionism, bringing us back into the fold of community (Narvaez, 2014). To be silly, you have to get off your high horse, meaning you have to let yourself feel vulnerable. It’s a sign of therapeutic success when clients can laugh at themselves. It means they have broken through survival defenses and realized that vulnerability is safe. We need many such breakthroughs right now.

If you think Men of the West--without whom women would still be chattel--are "entitled", wait until you bump into our muslim replacements. You're going to be awfully hot in that niqab, and by hot I mean heat stroke.

"without whom women would still be chattel"
So women are chattel? Women create life, without them, none of us would be here. The West would not have been settled (It was not the cowboy who settled the West)... Talk about male fragility...

"The liar herself can prove nothing. Her promiscuous, alcoholic (lack of) character is scrubbed and hidden by google operatives, including her yearbooks."
NOT proof, just character assassination. Rather cowardly of you.

"They enjoy a level of freedom and autonomy in the West unheard of everywhere else."
As long as they are treated as objects, assaulted, raped, immediately called liars (with no legitimate proof) when they say something, not be shunned, shamed... yes they are.

"Not by themselves."
But it could not happen without them, and they are treating like crap...

"This 11th hour hi-tech lynching of a good man paints democrooks in an even more awful light."
Again, you have to PROVE it. All you have is assumption, conjecture, and bleating whatever Trump says like a good sheep.

Not angry, just trolling trolls, and sexists who immediately dismiss either side. People who have no background in these kinds of situations acting like Judge and determining fault without any evidence.

Amazing how you manage to ignore all the stupidity you have posted while claiming other have no clue.

Hypocrisy, cherry picking and ignoring you own false statements, seems to be your style.

And you call others 'Troll'? LOL
Back under your bridge Franz

Do you ever go back and read your posts from say a month ago? You should. You might be able to learn exactly where your 'logic' fails. But, as with most of the demonstrably clueless yet sanctimonious, you probably would not see it.

What is really interesting is your apparent fleeting attention span and inability to focus on the whole statement. You seem to pick the one item you think you can 'win' on, ignore all context and then make some silly comment showing you don't really grasp the big picture even slightly.

Then you call folks coward for not being as 'brave' as you and Cher. BTW, if one wants to know what a projectionist such as yourself is afraid of, simply see what they label others with.

Even now the FBI cannot find such indications of Kavanaugh's sexual harassment against the women who came forward, but this doesn't address his character. A judge to the Supreme Court has to have good character, integrity and respectful. If these women stepped forward, it means he was not respectful. He used his power and ego. And now he has been elected to the supreme court because the FBI could find nothing. But it's okay if he doesn't have good character, integrity and respectfulness of women? What will his position on supreme court be like now that this has all happened? What will most people think of him? And how long will he last?
Too many times I have seen on the news about men in power who abuse their power thinking they are the untouchables, to sexually harass women. And we know because they got caught. That is how it works in this system.

There are three basic possibilities with Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford:

1) She's telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and he's a liar and a creep.

2) He's telling the truth, NOTHING happened, and she's a loony or a liar.

3) SOMETHING happened between them, and both are remembering the event differently (they were drunk and making out; she remembers him as a brute who was trying to rape her while he remembers her as a willing participant who suddenly freaked out and ran away crying for no reason).

If scenario #1 is correct, then Judge Kavanaugh's angry spiel sounds like the vile words of an entitled jerk. That's how Darcia Narvaez sees it.

But IF scenario #2 is the truth, then Judge Kavanaugh SHOULD be furious!!!! He has a RIGHT to be angry at a woman he thinks is unfairly ruining his life!!!

In this case, where you stand politically tends to determine how you interpret everything. Liberals hated Kavanaugh to begin with and are eager to believe he's a rapist with feelings of entitlement.

If you're a conservative, you are equally eager to believe that Kavanaugh is a fine man being slandered by the media.

Liberals were eager to believe the bogus story of rape victim "Jackie" at the University of Virginia because it seemed to confirm what they already "knew": that rich white fraternity boys are a lethal menace. Tell the truth, Ms. Narvaez, did YOU believe the Rolling Stone story was true?

We're all human, and we all tend to interpret other people's actions in accord with our own political beliefs. Both Ford fans and Kavanaugh fans are proving that right now.

Yes it is interesting that in the past women were more revered to be the healers and knowledge. It was men's egos that changed that. They were raised to feel more special because being a male meant they were going to keep the family line going in their name. And thus history.

Please don't just demonize men and vilify masculinity by using this pathetic "male entitlement" excuse. The fact of the matter is many of the luxury, convenience, success and pragmatic solutions that everyone enjoys immensely in life, including women are a result from this so called "male entitlement". This is even true today as is around the world as it's been for millennia.

The male sex is more dominant, have superior abilities and skills in various fields, more assertive, competitive, take big risks and overall programmed to face challenges to achieve success. This also the reason most men occupy high leadership positions in the dominant hierarchical system, an efficient social order than maintains stability. There can be only one leader and one follower, cannot have two leaders or two followers.
This is the major reason society respects, admires and honors men is due their success and ability. Nothing related to this baseless but regularly used reason "patriarchy culture".

Nonetheless, all this ambition for success also comes with a cost, as men need to sacrifice more at times including their own lives, suffer from great amount of stress, and encounter many other risks involved being a man.
More than 95% of jobs related deaths involve men, and more men are killed than women in homicide or accidents including high rates of suicide at times 5-6 times higher than women.
But all these are routinely hidden away from this "male entitlement" ridiculing narrative.

The real toxic problem now, in this modern age, is actually caused by women, who bring gender into every discussion & aspects of life but at the same time pretend gender should not be a deciding factor. Completely contradictory and conflicting ideas, quite hypocritical. I could never get my head around that concept.

Essentially women want to enjoy the "privileges" of being men, like the respect, admiration for success, the high position jobs but not wanting and not having the right attitude, abilities, or personality skills/traits for the job.
Women do not want to put the extra effort or face big challenges but want everything served on a silver platter.
Thus women also want to be able to enjoy the care and compassion society gives them just for their mere existence. This has conditioned many women to use the "victim role" to achieve success without the need to put the right effort. However, it is simply illogical to be both a victim that wants to be cared by society and desire success that demands respect at the same time. Paradoxical states that cannot be accomplished.

Therefore, many women in this modern age crave to be like men, to behave like men and to have ambitions like men but the only problem is they are NOT men and NEVER will be men.

Consequently, they have sacrificed their own feminine identity and qualities and live quite bitter miserable lives. They feel they can everything in life, like both being a mother and holding the CEO position of a company. Well that is nothing other than a false expectation and remains a wishful thinking, particularly, if women are not planning to put immense extra hard work, effort, sacrifice time and energy.

Thus, women feel resentful towards men for no real reason because in actual fact, men have always been doing the same old job for donkey's years tirelessly. Women got entangled into a problem that they created for themselves freely. They didn't realize every benefit comes with a cost. Nothing is free in the universe. One only reaps what one sows.

Thus, now unable to stand the overwhelming challenges, women cry oppression, even in the 21st century whereby most western nations consist of egalitarian societies. Ironically, it is women who are using gender to seek entitlement but at the same time keep claiming 'gender equality' must be practiced. It is quite a deceptive trick, one which fools many members of the public.

Women claim gender equality and demands special gender quotas for job positions but that "rule" is only applied for high paying cushy jobs like managerial directors, CEO, politicians, and even to infiltrate STEM fields. However, tougher or unpopular jobs, blue collar in nature, that have longer working hours, weekend or night shifts, work requiring more physical exertion or travel, that are predominantly done by men, the gender equality "rule" is totally ignored or conveniently forgotten.
The "female sex" excuse is almost used to get anything desired by playing this "oppressed victim role" or it can also be maliciously used as a weapon to destroy men's career and reputation, who usually oppose women but commonly used for vindictive reasons.

Women in this modern age have become very egocentric, selfish, money minded and put career before family.
Women are always complaining about gender pay gap and refusing to accept it's invalidity but don't care even a fraction for the significant "gender gap" in occupational deaths.

Single mother numbers are rising, 40% and with the associated social ills. Divorce is mostly initiated by women, 70-80% of the time contributed to poor children's emotional development as discussed in this article.
Children especially sons that grow up fatherless are at higher risk of being a juvenile delinquent. It increases the risks of raping and abusing women which only enhances the whole vicious cycle. This just adds to the societal chaos and conflict.

So, I don't think natural advantages of being a human male should be called having "male entitlement" instead women using their sex and victimhood to achieve their goals in life, should be called as the REAL "female entitlement".
The public and governments usually fail to recognize this aspect of the society or aware of it but continue to ignore it, just adding to the societal detriment.

This comment you made:Essentially women want to enjoy the "privileges" of being men, like the respect, admiration for success, the high position jobs but not wanting and not having the right attitude, abilities, or personality skills/traits for the job.

Wake up. The fifties are over. We live in a world now where equality is more prominent. Women don't want the privileges of being men, we want the equality so women can have the same higher position AND GET THE SAME PAY.
"Women claim gender equality and demands special gender quotas for job positions but that "rule" is only applied for high paying cushy jobs"

We only want the same equal acknowledgment and pay that the men get. We don't make special demands because of gender. Why is it there are not so many women CEOs? Most corporations I have worked in the highest a women was able to get was President of Hr. BUT THAT IS CHANGING.
For a woman to have a senior position within the workforce, and not get paid equally is just WRONG. And thus is a real reason for women to be resentful. We are not seen as equal, even though we are doing the same job. We are not the real problem. Finally sexual harassment laws were put into place for companies in our country to protect women in the workplace. Women were harassed and if they spoke out they were fired. This happened to my mother.

And here's the thing. If men could think with their big heads instead of their small heads, they would stay out of trouble more. The ego and their "small heads" are linked together. And then the power.

The problem started in history and women not being treated as equal, not being able to vote, have property and such. WOMEN DID NOT PUT THAT LAW INTO HISTORY MEN DID.

"Women in this modern age have become very egocentric, selfish, money minded and put career before family."

Women have had to become more like men in order to be successful. Why is that? Because the women's accomplishments are not being wholly recognized because they are women.

And not all women are like what you describe. You cannot generalize the female gender.
The real problem is not being able to get the respect we should have for what we do.
If there was gender equality a lot sooner, women would not have to voice this matter.

" If want that for closure and justice, so to ensure more people are made to be accountable, then rape needs to be decriminalized"
"Rape is not anywhere bad as murder or other violent crimes, most don't even leave any physical scars. "
"no reason for it not to happen."
"Yeah rape is nowhere near as murder because end of the day it would be silly for the perpetrator to injure the woman who his biological instincts is to ensure propagation of his genes, injuring the mate would defeat this very purpose. "
"Just think of it as "bad careless sex" which is what it is in reality."
"Rape is really just bad sex, selfish bad sex in essence. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Yes I actually think more and more men do actually hate women especially in this day and age."
"Women will never be respected in the same way as men just due the sex differences"
"rape is an alternative male sexual behaviour to increase reproductive success common among males who lost to the alpha males, so these males could not get full mating rights as the alpha male and rape is an alternative reproductive strategy for which they have little to lose or any expensive risk to incur. "
"70-80% of divorces are initiated by selfish women who put their needs before the children. "
"YES she get's raped, she either deserved it or was asking for it..."
"Males are the more evolved sex and responsible to drive evolution via the success of sexual reproduction. "
"Women will never be respected/admired/honored as much as men in society simply due to men's superior ability and men being object of success compared to women."
"Because women are objects of pity"
"Men enjoy their success that they always put sufficient effort, have a focused mind, sacrifice their time and energy to achieve the success. Hence, respected and admired for it by society."
"Women divorce mostly due to selfish, egocentric reasons and wanting to "extort" free money from the spouse and deprive children from paternal care "
"Having no say in the domestic decision making process, so they may become frustrated and resentful is just some fabricated hogwash that lack substance. Playing the victim role as usual."
"Essentially these women are the cause children's life's are ruined."
"If a woman is drunk, disinhibited sexually, flirtatious, dresses like a slut and behaves like a one too at wee hours of the morning at a club, I am sorry that is good as putting a sign around her saying "please come and rape me". "
"Women were basically designed to fall pregnant, nurture, teach and bring up children for which the society provides care to women."
"Males are born to be leaders!!!
Not only that, inventors, scientists, discoverers, etc are all men."
"The human civilization is due to man's effort."
"Men make better workers because mothers can suffer from maternal guilt if they have small children which can affect the child's well being."
"Women cannot be respected, honored and admired as much as Men. NEVER."
"The truth of the matter is women are insecure, envious"
"They are not designed to be dominant. They are physically inferior. "
"Men are indeed better than women "
"Women are the selfish, egocentric, opportunist"
"Everyone knows the real melodramatic ones are women"
"There is no way under any circumstances a woman can be same as a man. "
"80% of women who initiate divorce even when majority of men want to reconcile. "
"f that's your limited perception of a terrorist and if such a terrorist exist and shared similar views to me, then yes I FULLY AGREE with them. "
"Does not mean terrorist cannot have a right view and all must be wrong. "
"es, you asked me if a drunk slut whose flirting with a guy gets raped, then YES, 100% she is also responsible. NO doubt there. "
"Drinking could be easily driven by the stress that women cause"
"The main reason women divorce in this modern day and age, is due to their greed, selfishness and egocentric self "
"If you had not been a slut then chances are you would not have been raped. "
"No the rise in divorce rates correlates to the emergence of women wanting to act like men and demand to be respected by men. "
"If you are act and dress like a slut, get drunk and be sexually provocative, then the consequences are very clear"
"women will NEVER be respected or admired in the same way as men are respected by society "
"Causes of societal chaos. Just toxic.
Loss of morality and direction in Life.
Truly shameful and egocentric behaviour."

Copied and pasted from the article titled: "What Women Have to Fear From Men in Fraternities". Your comments. Just to give more detail on what you really think.

In a sense, I agree that the development of ego starts as a child. A male child in the past was important because it meant the family line would go on in their name. They were given more priority over their sisters. This is where the sense of entitlement came from. It starts at home. Even for me, this was evident. My younger brother was given special treatment because he was a boy, because he was expected to have children to carry on the last name. His ego was stroked a lot more than mine, and so thus he would expect it. Unfortunately, for any boy, who gets this kind of treatment, getting older he expects it. Then as an adult his ego is inflated by the false sense that he is entitled. Any power gained will only increase the ego. When things don't go as planned, like a rejection, his ego will be harmed more.
Perhaps boys should be taught and shown how to keep their egos in check and use rationality and common sense rather than putting them on a pedestal.
And why are men's egos more fragile is because they involve their egos so much more than women do, and also because society deemed women a lower form of humanity in the past history. They felt that women were taking away their power. Also religions have done this.
In some countries, women are seen more of a distraction, so they have to wear clothing to cover themselves from head to toe. These countries have gone to the extreme to protect their egos and their power. Power and ego can go hand in hand. If women are oppressed, their power goes unchecked. They must have the most fragile egos of all.

I agree to some extent about the history in the development of ego in a child and leading to entitlement, but nowadays this is not the case. It is more like an adult manifestation of "penis envy" among women to be honest, just due failure to accept some salient gender differences.

The fact of the matter is, men and women are very different, not just from a genital or sexual point of view but also including their abilities and preferences. Men are respected by society due to the ability to perform and achieve more success in life compared to women. Example, they make better leaders, do well in mathematics, science and technical work. Men also have the right attitude and skills to help them. Throughout humanity's history till today, many of the technological advancement, significant industrial progress and various inventions including establishment of effective systems in governance, economy management and social order by law are primarily due to men's effort. These facts are undeniable.

Thus, there is no surprise men are preferred over women in various circumstances. However, this cannot be misconstrued as "sexism" as what many feminists has compel everyone to falsely believe, because inherent gender traits that differ between the sexes play a vital role and simply cannot be denied or ignored. The failure to recognize that gender traits are real biologically based sex differences and not just some sociocultural construct is fundamental to understand this core issue. Gender differences are not just physical and physiological but also psychological.

Nonetheless, women nowadays want to enjoy the same privileges, respect, honor and admiration men are given by the society BUT not wanting to put the same effort to achieve it.
If they are required to work harder or put more effort due to their disadvantage as women, then they are quick to claim "bully" , "oppression" or "discrimination" using their gender as an excuse. Now this is paradoxical because on one hand, these women claim to be equal to men but on the other hand they want special treatment because of being a woman. This is the real entitlement in my view.

One cannot pick and choose the good favorable parts and discard the difficult challenging parts. Such selective proclivities do not work or accepted in the real world. This is the main issue today causing animosity between men and women.

Feminists have been propagandizing these false notions for sometime now and want women to enjoy the best of both worlds with minimal effort. So, in time, this hypocritical double standard behaviour becomes frustrating and discouraging for men. Women now are given almost everything just based on their sex, but believe me, no man is worried about women taking away man's power because most women completely lack the ability to even hold on to the power successfully in the first place. It is merely the failure to recognize their own weakness that causes their own downfall. Thus, it's more of an annoyance of this ridiculous notion that, implementation of gender based choice favoring women but concurrently also claiming gender differences are not important in selection. Fortunately, the truth cannot be hidden for long in Life.

Therefore, in summary, a man is admired/respected by society due to his abilities and regarded as object of success.
Women are cared/pitied by society due their vulnerability, so seen as objects of care and compassion.
The downside is, men wont receive the same level of compassion as women, whilst women will never obtain the same level of respect as men in a society. It will be paradoxical to enjoy both sides and logic will NOT allow it.

Today it is this predicament that many women are feeling uncomfortable to deal with, and express it by constant complaining using their gender to achieve their goals but this behaviour is not sustainable in the long run.
Alas, focusing only what women don’t benefit from whilst completely neglecting what they do, women just resent being the second sex, but they do it so only because they don't realize they hate being the primary sex even more.

No comment section on an article men v women would be complete without the unmitigated misogyny of Lucifer. He must have completely struck out and lumps all women in one category: evil. Women are like men - there are some who are evil, a few saints, some who are addled and misguided, but most are just ordinary people trying to survive in this world. That said, there are some who are nutty as fruitcakes, and Christine Blasey-Ford appears to be one of them. It is a grave mistake to jump to the conclusion that her testimony actually proved anything objective. All the indicators are pointing in the other direction. She appeared to be very upset, but we have no way of knowing the reason for that. She may have had an inappropriate encounter with someone, at some time, that she morphed into thinking it was Kavanaugh. It sounds like she had been to some crackpot therapy that may have used hypnosis and suggested some "repressed memories." She may have started out trying give the opposing senators fodder for something she zealously believed in politically, been promised that she would not actually have to testify, then turned out having to testify falsely to save face, and that betrayal may have upset her. That she may have been affirmatively lying is a distinct possibility, given the timing and the conduit she chose to "come out" with it. Who the heck knows? But to jump to a conclusion based on such shaky evidence is just just just wrong. This has nothing to do with the entitlement of men.

woman. Who knows better than an entitled man what goes on in that brain? I could guess just as well. My guess, and I am female, so take this with a grain of salt, is that entitled men have used their superior size and strength, in addition to their absence of vulnerability, to grab power and to lord it over women. In a hunter gatherer society, later a society based upon agriculture, and then an industrial society, a man's size and relative strength put him in a position of being better able to provide food and resources to the more vulnerable members of the society. A woman who is pregnant or caring for very young children is vulnerable, as are very young children. Women were pretty much slaves to their own biology with no effective birth control so a lot of them were pregnant and caring for small children for most of their short lives. During those periods of life, these members are either much less able, or completely unable, to provide food and necessities for themselves. So they are very dependent upon the men, who are bigger, stronger, and have all their time freed up to hunt and bring back the bacon. Having people dependent on you engenders power and leads to a pretty lopsided power imbalance. The dependent ones pretty much have to dance to the tune of the provider, else they don't eat. Men viewed themselves as entitled to the deference as the providers. Some of them were cruel about it. But women and children had no alternatives. Not so now. Women can make a decent living, can limit the time they are indisposed with childbirth and caring for the young by limiting the number and frequency of the children they have. So when your husband heads out the door on Saturday with his (golf clubs, hunting rifle, fishing pole, etc.) and says "by god I worked all week" when there are toilets to be scrubbed and grocery shopping to do, you can not have any food on the table for him and he can just fend for himself.

Ana you said
"The dependent ones pretty much have to dance to the tune of the provider, else they don't eat. Men viewed themselves as entitled to the deference as the providers"

Thats exactly the point, the so called provider does provide food and safety to the dependent ones - but there is a catch, the so called provision isnt available by itself, man has to work hard to get it and includes risk maybe even risk of his own life, for instance, hunting would have its own risk during the stone age as do now of losing jobs. Thats where man gets his entitlement. To feed with hard work, to protect with own life and then to be called as dictator - the society of feminists are not easy going not even close